Dang It ... glad we have DJI Refresh

[RNCotton]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.

 

[Timinator]

This is what scares me the most. I'm afraid at some point I will not be clearance conscious and clip something. Hopefully I will be able to confirm on camera I have the height, and then go for it. Did you look at the camera at all or just eyeball it from ground position?

 

[AH-1G]

Always try to maintain visual, as you know bad things happen, out of the blue objects grab or knock down your bird.
Sorry to hear about your mishap, hope all will be fixed shortly

 

[RNCotton]

Did you look at the camera at all or just eyeball it from ground position?

I was watching the aircraft, not the camera feed. We were doing some testing, and two pilots in the air. I was transitioning from one side of the pile to the other to observe his flight coming out of a confined space and setting up for another entry. As I was flying over to his area, I glanced
at his bird coming out to make sure exactly where he was .... and eyes back to my bird just in time to see it bobble and cartwheel with a *clang* ....

Lesson learned ... make *SURE* you are high enough to clear everything. I thought I was closer to me than the structure and would pass in front of it, not over it. But if I had made certain of my altitude on the screen, I would have known to go up a bit more "just in case."

 

[AH-1G]

I was watching the aircraft, not the camera feed. We were doing some testing, and two pilots in the air. I was transitioning from one side of the pile to the other to observe his flight coming out of a confined space and setting up for another entry. As I was flying over to his area, I glanced
at his bird coming out to make sure exactly where he was .... and eyes back to my bird just in time to see it bobble and cartwheel with a *clang* ....

Lesson learned ... make *SURE* you are high enough to clear everything. I thought I was closer to me than the structure and would pass in front of it, not over it. But if I had made certain of my altitude on the screen, I would have known to go up a bit more "just in case."

Dang! Don't you just hate it when that happens? Your intentions were great, but your bird wanted revenge.
Are you and your bird on good terms, is there something you said or did?

 

[shooter]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.

Perspective can be tricky...especially when the aircraft is some distance away and you're flying in an area other than wide-open land.

 

[RNCotton]

Are you and your bird on good terms, is there something you said or did?

It was jealous that I had brought another bird to the party.

 

[Rodger]

I had a lesson burned into memory last year. I was out in a very large open gravel bank and practicing flying by instruments only. I was being a good boy and flying at 65' when I glanced at the screen and realized the pine tree just as the Phantom crashed into it. Now, first thing I does get upyo 100'and move from there.

 

[Zzzoom3]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.

Dang thanks for sharing! I lost a Mavic Pro to a big wave that ate my drone alive while filming the surf! So big +1 on your altitude comment!!

I've always hoped DJI would include a MIN altitude threshold like they have a MAX altitude. This way after launch and crossing the MIN altitude, the aircraft then enters an altitude block hold mode so you can't inadvertently descend below the threshold. I submitted an e-mail to DJI support about it. Not sure if that makes it to the software engineering team though?

Approx. at what distance would you say this occurred? Was collision avoidance OFF?

 

[Rodger]

Dang thanks for sharing! I lost a Mavic Pro to a big wave that ate my drone alive while filming the surf! So big +1 on your altitude comment!!

I've always hoped DJI would include a MIN altitude threshold like they have a MAX altitude. This way after launch and crossing the MIN altitude, the aircraft then enters an altitude block hold mode so you can't inadvertently descend below the threshold. I submitted an e-mail to DJI support about it. Not sure if that makes it to the software engineering team though?

Approx. at what distance would you say this occurred? Was collision avoidance OFF?

How would you land with that in place?

 

[skyeboysteve]

This is one reason I think the VLOS requirement is a little "dated". I get much better spatial orientation from my display (camera view, map, bearing, attitude indicators) than I do from my own eyeballs looking at the drone more than 30 feet away. I do acknowledge though, that the primary requirement for VLOS is to provide separation from manned aircraft (which is important); and something that can't been achieved by a wide angle video feed looking in one direction at a time.

In any case, I never rely on my direct VLOS to determine if I'm going to hit something or not. There's been many times I thought I was getting close to a tree or a structure until I looked at my video feed and realized I'm not even half way there. (Which has made me realize that all those times flying RC aircraft decades before, that I probably wasn't nearly as far away from myself as I thought). When navigating around structures (which is most of my commercial work); I do a sweep with a 360 yaw as well as looking straight down first; to get a MUCH better idea of distances than I can get from where I'm standing. If anything appears at or above the horizon in my video feed, then I'm not going to clear it at my current altitude.

 

[MapMaker53]

Early on, I was demonstrating my Phantom to a bunch of people from our office in the parking lot. Took it up about 10 ft and headed toward the property boundary. Admittedly, I hadn't waited until the satellites count had reached a safe level because this was supposed to just be a quick demo. I let go of the right stick to put the brakes on and didn't realize that I had momentarily slipped out of GPS mode and into ATTI. From my position, it looked like the drone was standing still, but was in fact still coasting away from me. Just as I realized that, it hit the branches of a small tree and tumbled to the ground -- luckily unscathed except for a dinged prop I had to replace. A couple of lessons were learned that day.

 

[Zzzoom3]

How would you land with that in place?

Oh it could be done a few ways. If it was implemented as another flight mode, such as Active Track, you simply enable it and disable it. Having it enabled would make it active as soon as the MIN threshold is reached. To land you could either manually disable it or have the system disable it after returning to your Home Point and initiating the LAND function.

It would be fun to develop this use case I think for the engineers to implement.

 

[RNCotton]

Approx. at what distance would you say this occurred? Was collision avoidance OFF?

247' from the aircraft to the controller. Structure was a 40' container on end. I was at 43' altitude. There's a little rail that sticks off the top end of the container. Clipped it with the strut. Optical Illusion made me think I was closer and would track inside, not over.

New rule ... 50' minimum altitude around the structure stack.

 

[Zzzoom3]

247' from the aircraft to the controller. Structure was a 40' container on end. I was at 43' altitude. There's a little rail that sticks off the top end of the container. Clipped it with the strut. Optical Illusion made me think I was closer and would track inside, not over.

New rule ... 50' minimum altitude around the structure stack.

I see. I'm curious whether the obstacle avoidance sensors were providing any warning or not?

 

[924]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.

This is why I made a suggestion on the DJI Forum some time ago (and I recall it was responded to by DJI) that they consider adding a function to "level" the main camera with one push of a button.
That way the pilot can more easily determine via the monitor whether the aircraft is going to clear an obstacle in front of it. Depth perception is tricky as heck with these things.

 

[Premier Drone Productions]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.

Take off as near the object as practical. Climb straight up until you your reach the height of the top of the structure or object. Note the altitude on the DJI app add 10ft. That is your Minimum Obstacle Clearance Altitude (MOCA) never fly below that altitude. Adjust your settings in the app for RTH etc. I bring a golf range finder with me and shoot the height that way if you do not want to fly to get the MOCA. Also look on your sectional chart if it is a tower. You will get the MSL and AGL height.

 

[Boefinator]

This is why I made a suggestion on the DJI Forum some time ago (and I recall it was responded to by DJI) that they consider adding a function to "level" the main camera with one push of a button.
That way the pilot can more easily determine via the monitor whether the aircraft is going to clear an obstacle in front of it. Depth perception is tricky as heck with these things.

We have the C2 button assigned to that function, NADIR on 1 press, 90 degrees second press.

 

[Boefinator]

Take off as near the object as practical. Climb straight up until you your reach the height of the top of the structure or object. Note the altitude on the DJI app add 10ft. That is your Minimum Obstacle Clearance Altitude (MOCA) never fly below that altitude. Adjust your settings in the app for RTH etc. I bring a golf range finder with me and shoot the height that way if you do not want to fly to get the MOCA. Also look on your sectional chart if it is a tower. You will get the MSL and AGL height.

We do the same procedure, we estimate a Minimum Safe Altitude in advance, climb to the height and do a 360 scan of the Operating Area to ensure we have clearance and then don't operate below that.

 

[Jim Canada]

Pilot Error ... P4 Pro, flying across our SAR training grounds, and was watching the aircraft. Optical illusion and I thought the aircraft was closer to me than the structure. And I thought I was higher than the structure.

Well, I was right at the corner of the structure, and was higher than the containers, but wasn't higher than the railing sticking up another 5 feet. Clipped the landing strut, flipped, and fell 20' to a landing.

Broken prop, jacked motor, cracked shell, busted gimbal, busted LEDs.

Nope, I wasn't recording video.